Satellite
by writer writing
Summary: Clark finally repairs the satellite and catches up with Lois.


Lois answered the door with a pencil in her mouth, barely paying attention to who was at the door. She was in the process of working on a rough draft for one of her stories. She was still getting the hang of typing, so she preferred to write her story down first. It was just an opinion piece, so there was no investigating needed, and it wasn't due for couple of days, but she wanted to have a head start.

"Hey," said Clark rather shyly and awkwardly. He hadn't seen her for awhile, and he wasn't sure how she'd react.

She looked up surprised, taking in that it was Clark. The surprised look disappeared into fake confusion. "Do I know you?"

He tilted his head in annoyance, "Very funny."

She snapped her fingers suddenly. "Oh, I remember. Aren't you that repairman that was supposed to fix our satellite weeks ago?"

He let out a heavy sigh. "You would remember that."

"How could I forget? I've been watching 3 fuzzy channels for ages. Only 2 of the signals are strong enough for sound. One of these channels is PBS, who claims they have no commercials, and yet, they ask for money from the viewers every time I turn it on. I called them up and told them I'd donate a 100 if they stopped begging for one day, but it didn't work. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"You've been roughing it?"

"Yes," she said enthusiastically.

"It's scary when all your babbling makes sense to me. I came to see Chloe, and I'm guessing she's still at work. I can see that I'm not getting away until I fix your satellite though."

"Smart man," she smiled.

Clark shook his head. He had to do so many repairs over here that he kept an extra toolbox here. He didn't mind though. He knew Lois and Chloe couldn't afford professionals, and he never minded spending time with them.

Lois sat down on the couch to watch him work, forgetting about her article.

Clark took off the cover to see if everything looked together. He saw the problem. It was going to take a little work to fix it. "You know you could help by holding the flashlight."

"You know if you had asked me that, oh I don't know, about a month ago, I would have said yes but seeing as how—"

"Yeah, yeah. I don't deserve it."

"See, who says we never agree on anything?" she said with a smile.

He shook his head in frustration and went to work. He couldn't stop thinking about Lana and Bizarro. She had cheated on him, even if she hadn't known it at the time. He couldn't help but feel that she should have known it wasn't him. In fact, she had admitted that she liked Bizarro better.

"When is the last time you saw me?" he asked, wondering if Lois had interacted with Bizarro.

She looked at him strangely. "I don't know. I dropped in at Christmas, and you acted like a jerk, so I left. You're lucky that I decided to let you come in here."

He winced a little, but he was pleased too. She obviously had recognized a difference. He wanted to know more about her encounter with Bizarro. "What exactly did I do?"

"Smallville," she said in a warning tone.

"Humor me, please."

"I came to drop off your present, as you well know. I wasn't going to intrude on a private Christmas—"

"There's no such thing. Christmas is for family and friends. You're welcome to intrude whenever you like. You couldn't intrude even if you wanted to."

"Are you going to let me finish?" she asked.

"Of course, sorry."

"So anyway, it's not so much that you hadn't got me a present in return. I'm a tough girl, but you just stood in the doorway staring at me like I didn't belong and I was crazy for coming."

"I wasn't myself then. I got you a present months in advance. I'll give it to you next time I see you, and you belong. You can come to the farm anytime you want and I mean that."

"I haven't gotten to the worst part. I obviously felt awkward standing there, so I turned to leave, and you touched my behind for the second time. I don't know when you got this obsession with my butt, but you better see a therapist about it because if you do it again, I'll see to it that you see a doctor instead. I'm telling you, Clark, you better count your blessings. If you were any other man, you'd be in casts."

"I am so sorry, Lois. You can't believe how sorry I am."

"I know that too. I've already forgiven you and chalked it up to you being drunk, but don't let it happen again because soused to the gills or not, third time you're out."

He swallowed hard. He was about to strike out, and he hadn't even done anything. It shouldn't be a problem in the future, but sometimes he wondered—

Lois was waving. "Yoo-hoo, get to work."

He could feel the heat starting to rise from his cheeks as he quickly focused on his work again.

"So why the sudden memory lapse? Were you too drunk to remember it or is it another bout of amnesia?"

"The first one," he said quickly. It was a lie, but it was the only way he could see out of it. Drunkenness explained away a multitude of sins. "So you knew I wasn't myself?" he asked again. No one else had seemed to notice, at least not immediately, not like Lois.

"Uh, yeah," she said like it should have been crystal clear to anyone.

"Would you have slept with me when I was like that?"

Her mouth dropped open in shock.

"I mean if you were my girlfriend," he quickly amended.

"You weren't exactly at your most charming," she said with a roll of her eyes.

He couldn't help but smile. Then he frowned. Why couldn't Lana be like that? Why couldn't she have seen a difference and not liked that difference? He wondered if this was something they were going to be able to get past, if he was going to be able to get past it. He had a funny feeling the answer was no. He still hadn't talked to her since she told him about it. He turned the satellite on. "It's as good as new," he stated with pride. "Hey, have you ever thought about surround sound?"

"That's just like a guy to say that but no, I'm happy with my sound and satellite. I'm not a hard girl to please, simple pleasures and all that junk."

"Well, if that's all, I've got some other things I have to do."

"That's all," she said, standing up and walking him to the door. "And hey, don't be a stranger, stranger," she said, punching his shoulder affectionately.

He gave her a warm smile, "Don't worry. You'll be sick of me before you know it. I'll be closer than your shadow."

"Is that a promise?" she said it half jokingly, half seriously.

"It's a promise," he answered in complete seriousness.

The End


End file.
